Fruits of labour in community garden help needy

Hard work, dedication and community spirit is driving this team of green thumbs to grow much more than potatoes and passionfruit.

Redcliffe State School student Katie Brooks, 13, with produce grown in the Ken Yule Community Garden. Picture: AAP Image/Regi Varghese

FRUIT and vegetables may be flourishing in this garden, but so is friendship and the joy of giving something back to the community.

The Ken Yule Community Garden is proof, from little things big things grow; and is the brainchild of Redcliffe State High School Year 8 student Katie Brooks.

She’s part of the school’s Interact club, which was looking for a community project when Katie remembered an article she read in the National Geographic kids magazine about the value of community gardens.

Fortuitously, the Scarborough Masonic Lodge’s Master Mason Chris Brown was keen to create a community garden on its grounds. His wife Julie is the teacher who works with the Interact club and was able to connect the two.

Master Mason Chris Brown, Katie Brooks, Alexander Zillmann, Katie Gorski and teacher Julie Brown. Photo: Dominika Lis

They started with potatoes in April 2018 and now have spinach, pumpkin, broccoli, chilli, carrots, herbs, strawberries, tomatoes, snow peas, cucumbers, eggplants and more. There’s a roster for watering, to ensure the garden receives a drink every day and they have a weekend working bee every month or so for about three hours.

All the produce they grow is donated to Encircle at Redcliffe to help feed people doing it tough.

“It feels good to help the community and giving back is part of ‘soaring above and beyond’,” Katie Brooks says quoting the school motto.

Fellow students and gardeners Katie Gorski and Alexander Zillmann say it’s exciting to watch crops grow and know their efforts are making a difference.

Friendships have also blossomed in the garden and Julie says it’s lovely to hear students chatting while they work.

Parents, brothers and sisters are also joining in the fun.

COPYRIGHT WARNING for Moreton Life ONLY. Phone Kylie Knight 3480 8226. Redcliffe State High School Interact Club students have created a community garden at the Scarborough Masonic Lodge grounds.

Julie says the students have been able to taste some of their produce, learning the value of growing and enjoying fresh fruit and vegetables, and trying new things.

The project has been supported by the Order of the Eastern Star, the Rotary Club of Redcliffe City and Redcliffe Men’s Shed, among others.

At this point there are no plans to expand the garden — its present size is just right. But the team will soon be using an old garden at school to raise seeds and grow crops that require closer monitoring.